Living with heart: A Solventum engineer's renewed purpose

Arend Schuurman starts his day early as a quality engineer, making sure Solventum maintains the highest quality standards at our manufacturing facility in Brookings, South Dakota. By evening, he might be heading to a school board meeting, responding to an emergency call as a volunteer firefighter or tucking in one of his six children. It's a life built around service to his family, his community and the patients his work quietly touches every day. 

But a few years ago, Arend became the patient. And the Solventum products he knew so well were suddenly helping him recover. 

A daughter's legacy

When Arend and his wife Erin welcomed their daughter Naomi in 2018, they knew her path would be difficult. Prenatal scans revealed cardiac complications, and doctors confirmed a diagnosis of Down syndrome. None of it changed how much they loved her. 

Naomi had hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM), a genetic condition that causes an enlarging of the heart and an AV canal defect. Despite the best efforts of care teams, her condition couldn't be repaired. She spent only 11 days of her life outside the hospital and passed away at three and a half months old. 

"And even in her short time with us, she taught the entire family and those around her an incredible amount," Arend says. 

Naomi's condition did something else, too. It unlocked an answer Arend had been searching for — without knowing it — for nearly 20 years. 

Finding the missing piece 

After Naomi's death, genetic testing confirmed that Arend also carried the markers for HCM. The shortness of breath, unexplained chest pain and strange symptoms that had baffled doctors for years finally had a name. His condition had been worsening. He fainted on an ambulance call, passing it off as nothing serious, and kept going. But things wouldn't stay that way. 

In September 2022, testing identified the precise genetic marker. By January, a local cardiologist confirmed both the diagnosis and a plan. Arend needed open heart surgery and went to see a pioneering surgeon who helped create the standard for this type of complex operation. 

Surgeons opened his chest and physically removed the thickened portion of his septum, or wall of the heart, that was obstructing blood flow from his left ventricle. The procedure took about five and a half hours. He went home less than four days later, an incredibly fast recovery for someone with his condition. 

The products on the other side 

Arend has spent nearly two decades helping ensure Solventum products meet the exact specifications that matter when lives are on the line. In the surgical suite, he was on the other side of that equation. 

His central line IV was secured with a Tegaderm™ Securement Dressing, while Solventum drapes and tapes were used throughout his care. A V.A.C.® Therapy system covered his entire chest incision, helping him heal.  

"Suddenly our design specs mean a whole lot more when you realize that, yes, this is real," he says. "My life is depending on this. And our products performed flawlessly." 


In particular, the V.A.C. ® Therapy for his wound made a big impact. "Not only did the care team do an incredible job suturing me up, but our negative pressure wound therapy made that incision look incredible after only a few days of use." 

A more personal mission 

Arend returned to Solventum with a new perspective on the work he does every day. He returned to firefighting and his EMT role. He's back on the school boards. He's a certified CPR instructor, drawing directly on what he's experienced. 

"What I would say to my fellow quality engineers at Solventum is what you do matters," he says. "You have a direct and profound impact on the products that our patients use and the family members that rely on these products." 

He carries Naomi with him in all of it. Every year on her birthday, he brings a rose to her headstone. His wife crochets hats for infants in the ICU in her memory. 

Ask Arend what drives him today and his answer is immediate. "What brings me the most joy is knowing what I do matters. The products that end up in the hands of those healthcare providers, on those patients, must work every time. And so it becomes a very personal mission every day." 

For Arend Schuurman, solving with heart isn't a phrase. It's the only way he knows how to work.